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Bristol Metrobus

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LordCreed

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Caught the A1 to the airport this morning and whilst the bus was very new and clean, the journey seemed to drag. The guided busway sections are too short to achieve a consistent speed.

Customer service was unfortunately lacking, with the driver leaving the stop whilst people were loading bags into the racks, alongside playing music rather loudly in his cab. A bit of a letdown for a rather expensive bus route.
 
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TheGrandWazoo

TheGrandWazoo

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LordCreed said:
Caught the A1 to the airport this morning and whilst the bus was very new and clean, the journey seemed to drag. The guided busway sections are too short to achieve a consistent speed.

Customer service was unfortunately lacking, with the driver leaving the stop whilst people were loading bags into the racks, alongside playing music rather loudly in his cab. A bit of a letdown for a rather expensive bus route.
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Think everyone who has been on the m2/a1 is saying the same. The guided bus sections seem to be superfluous and, aside from stopping joyriders etc from getting onto the busway, are a hindrance more than a help. At least the a1 no longer gets snarled up in the traffic through Bedminster.
 
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WelshBluebird

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TheGrandWazoo said:
Can't help but agree with you. Doesn't really fit the premise for metrobus.

I know there's a parallel rail line but I might have thought Keynsham to Bristol might be another corridor that they could upgrade relatively easily. You have a significant amount of existing Bath Road bus lane. There are some bottlenecks to sort out - the junction with West Town Lane, inbound through Briz village (past the Fame school), Bath Hill (outbound - not certain how you solve that), and worst by the Paintworks where I got stuck on Monday morning. Perhaps they should have got some s106 money from the developers of Somerdale and used it to improve bus priority to/from Keynsham as a pre-emptive measure rather than wasting it on the 636, carting fresh air around. Just a thought.
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I believe a Bristol - Keynsham metrobus service is on the cards for the future. How long till that though - who knows!
Agreed about the Somerdale development. Really seems like a missed opportunity of improving public transport in the area.

carlberry said:
I can imagine the council meeting!

We have some s106 money to spend, do we spend it to improve the main service (run by the nasty big bus company) for commuters, spend it on the rail service (it should be enough to get one extra train stopping every other week) or spend it on a service that has lots of old people using it that we can use for a photo op and goes near to somebody who writes me letters every two days demanding a better bus service just in case they have to use it one day!
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With the rail service at least, the annoying thing is, the peak services show it can be done.
Between 7.15am and 9am, there are 8 services between Keynsham and Bristol Temple Meads (with between a 10 and 15 minute gap between services). For a station that for the rest of the day (apart from a short period in the evening peak too) that normally gets one service an hour, that is pretty impressive if you ask me. It just needs to be done for longer periods during the day (and in the evening, as the morning peak is quite a bit better than the evening peak).
 
TheGrandWazoo

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carlberry said:
We have some s106 money to spend, do we spend it to improve the main service (run by the nasty big bus company) for commuters, spend it on the rail service (it should be enough to get one extra train stopping every other week) or spend it on a service that has lots of old people using it that we can use for a photo op and goes near to somebody who writes me letters every two days demanding a better bus service just in case they have to use it one day!
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Is that an actual transcript of the meeting? :lol: Sums it up quite accurately though it also misses out the "I've looked at the map and there's two places that aren't currently linked so there must be a requirement" type of decision. Of course, you then have to have the obligatory photo of miserable pensioners at an empty bus stop in the local rag "The News" when the service is withdrawn though I don't even think the 636 managed that!

Using metrobus as a means to improving the Bath Road (and remove some of those bottlenecks) would, of course, benefit the X39 and the P&R. Even with the train service improved, the peripheral location of Temple Meads means that there should be room for better bus services from Keynsham to centre of Bristol. Just a view
 
Class 33

Class 33

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carlberry said:
The original idea of Metrobus was that it's high frequency with traffic priority available, Redland has always struggled as an area to serve both because of the local roads and the percentage of bus users. Plus it has a rail service. Given the, reduced, levels of service recently I cant see it getting new services in the near future.
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Redland had a bit of a better service a couple of years ago before they changed the 8 & 9 to become separate services and a reduction in frequency of the 9. There was also the 72 too when it ran via Whiteladies Road.

And if they reduce the frequency level then it's inevitable that less people will then use the services, and use alternate plans to travel. Like for example walk to either Whiteladies Road or Cheltenham Road and get buses from there instead. Or even just walk all the way.

There is also the fact that the 9 and 72 runs via such a long way round between Redland and Broadmead, rather than a more direct route. That puts a lot of people off using it. I got on an 8 once at about 8:15am to travel to the Centre. It took ages, about 45 minutes! Crazy! Never again have I used these services to travel towards town at that sort of time of morning.

Nope, unfortunately Redland has pretty poor transport links really compared to other areas of Bristol. And I agree, I can't see it getting any new services or frequency increases in the near future. One of the reasons why I'm trying to relocate away from Redland - I'd prefer to live somewhere that has better bus services.
 
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TheGrandWazoo

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Class 33 said:
And if they reduce the frequency level then it's inevitable that less people will then use the services, and use alternate plans to travel. Like for example walk to either Whiteladies Road or Cheltenham Road and get buses from there instead
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It's the age old chicken and egg scenario - if people were using the buses, they wouldn't need to reduce the frequency? I can only assume that the 8 benefits from the Zoo and Clifton Village being traffic objectives in their own right. You're probably right in that Redland won't get additional services, and yes, some people are doubtlessly walking to Whiteladies Road etc to use the frequent services there.
 
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Marcus Fryer

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-Colly405- said:
Just today (on an m1 without a via) I've seen people letting an m1 go at Stoke Park, to get on the M3 behind, which of course says it's going to the City Centre, whereas the m1 didn't...
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There could be other reasons, such as joining friends who are already on the m3.
Monday-Friday the m3 carries Metro newspapers; the m1 doesn't.
 
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-Colly405-

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Marcus Fryer said:
Just seen 36806 heading through Bradley Stoke towards Cribbs Causeway on the m1. Is this a first?
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Nope; see my post last night on the First thread - it was on the m1 leaving Cribbs around 2100 last night.
Also saw an Urban 368xx on the m3 this morning.
And 2913 was out of service coming south through Great Stoke around 17:45 tonight - not seen one NIS before at that time of day, especially there!
 
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Marcus Fryer

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-Colly405- said:
Nope; see my post last night on the First thread - it was on the m1 leaving Cribbs around 2100 last night.
Also saw an Urban 368xx on the m3 this morning.
And 2913 was out of service coming south through Great Stoke around 17:45 tonight - not seen one NIS before at that time of day, especially there!
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36806 on the m1 again yesterday and today. Today it is on the 15:30 Cribbs Causeway to Hengrove Park, masquerading as 2921 on bustimes.org.
 
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AB93

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TheGrandWazoo said:
It doesn't have guide wheels https://www.flickr.com/photos/david...bfCy2h-ZBErnn-27qJoQy-26N38Q5-2cryWgK-24knpin
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It does have guide arms fitted though, they're visible in the photo. It has done a stint at Hengrove on the m2 having had guide wheels fitted (which is a ten minute job).

freetoview33 said:
36806 is one that can be used on any of the metrobus routes I think when it does operate on the M1 it is still run by First staff ect.
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No, the bus is loaned to CT Plus, it's still driven by their staff.
Having it driven by First drivers and trying to match the bus workings with driver duties would be a total nightmare and virtually unworkable!
 
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-Colly405-

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The final bus shelter for the current metrobus routes is (finally) being installed. That's the one at Harry Stoke northbound.

Strange that it's taken this long, especially as there's been a shelter at Parkway North P&R westbound for months, which isn't yet served by any buses!
 
TheGrandWazoo

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carlberry

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TheGrandWazoo said:
Thought crossed my mind yesterday. I was driving from Whitchurch around the SBRR and seemed to recall that there had been some sort of announcement that First would look to extend the m2 to Hengrove at some point (the contentious missing link) https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/first-bus-metrobus-south-bristol-2006707

That was in September and I can't recall hearing anything since. Did I miss something?
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The Councillors involved had to concentrate on getting elected again!
 
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